The Louisiana Democrat. [volume] (Alexandria, La.) 1845-1918, 1887-01-05

that neighbored it. The people were
becoming very weary, so they sad
though the fact of their exhaustion did
not come through their teeth quite as
gently as 1t here goes to paper--andl 1t
seemed very hard to always pay tor
and bear the demoralizing effects OF
kind of tragic criminal farce. 1t was
distressingly expensive and exceeding
" long between scenes. Sometimes
they almost forgot, they said, what the
first acts had been; and when the
fourth or fifth scene was reached, att
er the lapse of as many years, perhaps.
and Justice drew her sword end with,
forbidding risage fourlshed
it about the culprit's head, then
wiped it with her silk hand.
kerchief, and placed it in its
sheath and kissed the offender and let
him 90 they really were so bewilderedi
by the flourishing and kissing, and
lapse of time since the farce began
they could hardly say if it were right
or wrong, and sometimes they were SO
weary they didn't even care. But
nearly always at the end OF the first
or second act they were very much Of
Tended that justice should lift her
sword and Just when she was going ito
strike would wink at them and laugh
and 60 off the boards to change her
costume for the next scene, and
in this case they were so cross
and tired it seemed as though
they couldn't bear TO see the play pro-
coed. OF course they were not consid-
crate, nay, were actually mean, per-
haps, but performance should not
last too long or be unauly similar in
scenes; and they were very, very tired
of the old, long plays, they said, and
sorry enough, too, let us hope, since it
seemed so disrcspcctful, and the man
ayers were thriving so finely on the
old, long plays.
To John Earling the decision of
Judge Ashman came something like a
shock; for, though conscious of, he was
not vet accustomed to, the fact that a
thing at law must often be fought for
and won a great many times before
what seems The law will permit one to
carry his own away.
immediately on the morning that the
verdict convicting Fowler was reached,
John Earling had gone out to see the
old attorney. But the news had pre-
ceded him, and though the old man
was weak and palsied and propped up
in bed under the big moose head, his
ewes cleaned with gladness, and he felt
! about and got hold Of the young man's
hand, and, gazing approyingly into his
face, exclaimed, in his broken voice:
"What hair! what hair! | knew you
would fetch it away! Srum! snum
but YOU fetched it!'' and he rocked his
. trembling head in wondering approval
But now John Earling had not the
heart to 60 and see him again. but
within an hour he had set about pre-
pairing the ground for the next strug
: gle, while the old lawyer, lying under
e the moose head out at the north end @
4 the taWn, looked at his attendant as Il
r it weassd be an exceeding pleasure tt
!, eat him, and muttered malediction
e upon the cravenly Ashman. join
u Earling did not know, and neither di'
/ the murmuring people, that Joel Whit
a ncy had given them the drink tina
u made their bosoms bitter. Only one
d perhaps, the old lawyer with the bi!
v Indian head and palsed hands, di
e vined the true impulse that moye'
= Judge Ashman on to action.
;, dang itr' he said, with his ambe
e eyes glaring at the moose head, ether
=! can't be any justice, and you know ii
- as long as the law and politics run o
- together, windin' into each other Xix
&c two Internal snakes, with politics a
e rotten as the city treasurer's heart i
u u the courthouse of Sodom!'
10 The moose head did not offer to dis
Il pute the assertion, and the old lawye
. groaned and lay still.
% All that day the sky seemed flat an
h low and leaden, with a raw win
= breathing out of the north and drivin
~ the dull scud across the heavens ava
"a into that stupendous mouth which SIX
"a and prairie made toward the soutl
!. The sun could not be distinguishe
n when it set save by long, low fiji
NJ where the world turned down at tn
70 west. Absalom Heater, standing upo
- a his porch on the ridge to the west
~ Openstone, thought how like SON
y great burning city, smoSe-mntiied an
Of crumbllng, itlooked. He let his eyes ia
" away from it and pause moment
~ the brow of the ridge to the SOU
90 where Maun was murdered. and shoe
90 his head and looked up at the driftir
=, scud. Cant let i'm off, he rlu
Vt tered. "Wrong, though! right, to
~ tough! hate to! no worse than shoe
I l1 in rebs, I guess, thought and
~ stood looking absently at the froz'
~ ground before him awhile, then turn'
,'Ss and went in.
yn Several times while eating supper
he stopped, and, after looking about t
Of comfortable room and caressing t
- curly-headed twins and smiling Eth
mt with his eyes, gazed gloomaeil Rev b
Dr. plate and groMAlesahf.-M Might hey h;
hayed " this! It's his own doins!'
~ After supper he kissed them al
es went striding sway toward the tow
ed Darkness came early into Openstol
be that night upon a rising wind, whic
he mingled with falling snow, went moa
n. ing over the houses and sobbing und
he the caves. Everywhere lights brol
at out. throwing their pale streams thou!
90 the windows into the darkness and d
is covering to the muffled passer-by VIII
q an infinite white swarm was hyll
g. over and about him. Down by the riv
N the big Touring mill, the long plo'
IN factory, the wagon works, the found
re and the planing-mill, were silent, sa
g. at the dams middle where the spi